Viking Baseball has been very quiet in terms of strong seasons in years prior. In fact, it has been over a decade since the boy’s varsity baseball team has made a playoff appearance in the 6A league. With the regular season coming to an end, the team has a regular season record of 15-10, with their final league record sitting at 9-9. While this number may not seem too impressive, this record will most likely solidify a playoff spot for the program for the first time in over a decade. The team has taken a new identity for their name, labeling themselves as the Groverville Dirtbags. This identity was brought to the team by new assistant coach Greg Lord in reference to the Long Beach State college baseball program that embraces the reality of being a dirtbag.
Being a dirtbag may seem to be a negative connotation at first glance, however, it’s just quite the opposite. In the words of Coach Lord, “Being a dirtbag is giving it everything you got and going out there to do something great. When the going gets tough, it’s just about right for us” (Lord). This new identity gave the team a central belief to play around with. When asked about it, Anthony Leo, the Vikings’ starting pitcher, said that this team “wasn’t only a baseball team, but more like a family of brothers.” The Vikings have had an impressive season so far, but are far from finished. They still have two games to play, finishing out their season for their bye week against Mountainview and North Salem this week prior to their first undecided playoff matchup next week on Friday. The team has adopted a more defense-focused approach to practices and gameplay. The philosophy is to make every routine play, which includes making not-so-routine plays look routine. The team has recorded its best overall fielding percentage in the past decade at a very impressive .941 percentage. The team’s defensive focus has clearly paid off with this fielding percentage, along with their team chemistry while on the diamond. The middle infield has 7 runs saved on the season. Meaning they’ve taken away hits that would’ve resulted in 7 total runs on the season, along with the outfield totaling 4. As a player who’s come up through this program over the past four years, I can confidently say that this is the best roster our varsity team has had since I’ve been here. Everyone has made a commitment to one another and is focused on the same main goal. The main goal is to get to Kaizer. Kaizer Stadium is where the state championship game is played, and that has been the driving force for the Vikings this season. While making it all the way to the state championship after not making a playoff appearance in nearly 2 decades may seem like a stretch, it’s more about the message everyone is constantly reminded of, which is to keep pushing forward. To not get complacent, to keep getting better. While I don’t know what the future holds for this program, I can promise that the trajectory of this program has changed for the better as a result of this group of guys this year. I couldn’t be more grateful for this group, and I am excited to see what the future holds for each and every person on this team.
